Art News. Vasari Codex

trending_up market schedule Sep 9, 2025 visibility 17 link 15 artists

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The estate of Elaine Wynn, the late casino magnate and top art collector who died in April 2024, has announced plans for her renowned collection. Francis Bacon's triptych *Three Studies of Lucian Freud* (1969)—which Wynn purchased for a record $142.2 million at Christie's in 2013—will be donated to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), where she served as board cochair. The painting, the first Bacon to enter LACMA's collection, will debut in the museum's new David Geffen Galleries when they open next year. Separately, Christie's will auction 20 works from Wynn's collection across three sales in New York this November, with estimates totaling at least $75 million. Highlights include Richard Diebenkorn's *Ocean Park #40* (1971), Lucian Freud's *The Painter Surprised by a Naked Admirer* (2004–05), Joan Mitchell's *Sunflower V* (1969), and J.M.W. Turner's *Ehrenbreitstein* (1835).

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museum exhibitions schedule Jun 10, 2025 visibility 10 link 6 artists

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An exhibition titled “The Women of Klimt, Schiele and Kokoschka” has opened at the Belvedere Palace & Museum in Vienna, running from October 22, 2015 to February 28, 2016. The show examines how Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, and Oskar Kokoschka depicted women, highlighting the artists' obsessive focus on female subjects against the backdrop of Vienna's changing society and the early 20th-century revolution in gender politics and sexuality.

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trending_up market schedule Jun 10, 2025 visibility 17 link 8 artists

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Sotheby's London will auction three Francis Bacon paintings at its July contemporary art evening sale, including 'Study for a Pope I' (1961), one of six pope paintings Bacon created for a Tate exhibition. The work, previously owned by Gunter Sachs, sold for a record £10 million in 2005, and is now estimated at £25–35 million ($38.3–53.7 million). The sale also features a 1975 Bacon self-portrait and three studies for a 1980 self-portrait, with total sale expectations of £204 million ($312.9 million), 35 percent from British artists.

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trending_up market schedule Jun 6, 2025 visibility 16 link 6 artists

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Sotheby's London will auction a rare set of all four Shakespeare Folios—the First (1623), Second (1632), Third (1663), and Fourth (1685)—as a single lot on May 23, with a presale estimate of £3.5–4.5 million ($4.7–5.99 million). The set, assembled in 2016, is led by the First Folio, which preserved 18 of Shakespeare's plays that might otherwise have been lost. The sale marks the first time all four volumes have been offered together since a 1989 Sotheby's New York auction, which was canceled after a private offer was accepted.

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article culture schedule Jun 2, 2025 visibility 16 link 11 artists

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In 2013, visitors to New York's Museum of Modern Art encountered actress Tilda Swinton sleeping in a raised glass box in the lobby, a performance piece titled *The Maybe*. Swinton first performed the work at London's Serpentine Gallery in 1995, developed with Joanna Scanlan, and has reprised it only twice: at Rome's Museo Baracco in 1996 and at MoMA in 2013. The MoMA iteration, curated by Klaus Biesenbach, featured Swinton alone in the glass case for eight hours a day over seven days, without the historical curiosities that accompanied the original Serpentine installation. Swinton has stated in a 2024 interview that she intends to perform *The Maybe* again "when least expected."

newspaper Artnet News open_in_new Read original

trending_up market schedule May 30, 2025 visibility 11 link 12 artists

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Belgian Neo-Impressionist Georges Lemmen's painting *Jeune femme faisant du crochet (Julie Lemmen)* (1890) sold for $698,500 at Sotheby's New York on May 14, shattering its $50,000–$70,000 estimate and more than doubling the artist's previous auction record. The Pointillist portrait of the artist's sister, Julie Fréderique Lemmen, had been in a private Florida collection since 1960 and was consigned through Sotheby's online portal. The sale drew over a dozen bidders, including a museum, two dealers, and five private collectors, and was backed by an irrevocable bid.

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museum exhibitions schedule May 29, 2025 visibility 15 link 12 artists

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The Museum of Fine Arts in Bilbao has completed a restoration of Pedro Berruguete's *The Annunciation* (1485–1490), a painting that once formed part of an altarpiece likely for a church in Palencia, Spain. The work, on a five-year loan from the Arburu collection, had suffered from cracks, dirt, and oxidized varnish over centuries. Two specialists—Elisa Mora Sánchez for the paint layer and Mayte Camino Martín for the gilding—cleaned, repaired, and re-gilded the panel, revealing Berruguete's blend of Italian Renaissance, Flemish, and Castilian Gothic influences.

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article policy schedule May 29, 2025 visibility 15 link 12 artists

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The Trump administration is moving to eliminate the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) while simultaneously cutting its funding and reshaping its priorities. In early May, the NEH announced $9.55 million for 68 projects, a sharp drop from $26.2 million for 238 projects the previous year. The number of Summer Stipends was slashed from nearly 100 to just 18, with total funding cut by three-fourths to $144,000. Only one Media Project grant was awarded, down from ten. The administration has also sought to lay off NEH workers, cancel grants, and divert funds to a National Garden of American Heroes, a presidential pet project.

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trending_up market schedule May 19, 2025 visibility 18 link 16 artists

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New York's marquee spring auctions in May 2025 tested the theory that strong supply drives demand, but results were mixed. Alberto Giacometti's *Grande tête mince* (1955), estimated at $70 million, failed to sell at Sotheby's, while Christie's withdrew a $30 million Andy Warhol electric-chair painting. The top lot of the week was Piet Mondrian's *Composition with Large Red Plane, Bluish Gray, Yellow, Black and Blue* (1922), which fetched $47.6 million from the collection of late Barnes & Noble founder Len Riggio. However, Christie's pre-sold 93% of that collection's value to third-party backers, and the house fell $26 million short of its guaranteed amount. Sotheby's avoided financial risk on the Giacometti by not guaranteeing it, still earning $34.4 million in buyer's premiums. A new record for a living woman artist was set when Marlene Dumas's *Miss January* (1997) sold for $13.6 million at Christie's, though adjusted for inflation it fell short of Jenny Saville's 2018 record.

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museum exhibitions schedule May 3, 2025 visibility 15 link 15 artists

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The Frick Collection has reopened after a $220 million, five-year renovation, featuring a new installation called "Porcelain Garden" by Ukrainian-born artist Vladimir Kanevsky. The display includes over 30 handcrafted porcelain floral pieces, such as a lemon tree, lilies of the valley, and a wild artichoke, placed alongside masterpieces by Vermeer, Rembrandt, Goya, and Bellini. Kanevsky, a 74-year-old Jewish-Ukrainian émigré who moved to New York in 1989, originally trained as an architect and turned to porcelain as a side project, which unexpectedly became his career. All the flowers at the Frick have been sold, with prices ranging from $5,000 to $500,000, though his secondary market remains minimal.

newspaper Artnet News open_in_new Read original

trending_up market schedule May 2, 2025 visibility 13 link 8 artists, 2 galleries

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Gagosian Gallery will present a new body of work by artist Anna Weyant at TEFAF New York, featuring intimately scaled paintings of jewelry rendered with trompe l’oeil precision. The booth, designed with lavender walls and pine-hued carpet, showcases pieces like "Pearl Earrings" (2025) and "Pearl Bracelet (Sold)" (2025), some with cheeky price tags and red dot stickers. Weyant, represented by Gagosian since 2022, has seen her market soar, with her auction record set at $1.6 million for "Falling Woman" (2020) at Sotheby’s in 2022.

newspaper Artnet News open_in_new Read original

article news schedule May 1, 2025 visibility 10 link 10 artists

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This article from Artnet News compiles a list of notable accidents in museums, where visitors, children, or even curators have inadvertently damaged valuable artworks and artifacts. Incidents include a four-year-old boy shattering a $15,000 Lego sculpture of a Zootopia character, a 12-year-old boy punching a $1.5 million Baroque painting by Paolo Porpora at Huashan 1914 Creative Park in Taipei, a Cy Twombly sculpture knocked over at the Menil Collection in Houston, and a visitor breaking a 4,000-year-old Minoan vase at the Heraklion Archaeological Museum in Crete. The article is framed as a lighthearted yet cautionary look at the fragility of museum objects and the human errors that lead to their damage.

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trending_up market schedule Apr 30, 2025 visibility 15 link 7 artists

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Pablo Picasso's 1932 painting *Femme à la montre*, depicting his lover Marie-Thérèse Walter, sold for $139.4 million (including fees) at Sotheby's New York during the highly anticipated Emily Fisher Landau sale. The work, estimated at $120 million, was the centerpiece of the auction, with bidding starting at $95 million and concluding after a two-minute standoff among three phone bidders, including one from Asia. Brooke Lampley, Sotheby's head of global fine art, secured the winning bid on behalf of a client. The sale was handled by Sotheby's, which won the right to auction the estate of Landau, a longtime Whitney Museum board member and private collector.

newspaper Artnet News open_in_new Read original

article news schedule Apr 8, 2026 visibility 35 link 17 artists, 1 gallery

The Art of ‘The Christophers’: How the Film Created an Artist’s Fabled Oeuvre

Steven Soderbergh’s new film, The Christophers, explores the complexities of artistic legacy and authenticity through the story of Julian Sklar, a fictional washed-up artist played by Ian McKellen. The plot follows Sklar’s children as they hire an art restorer, played by Michaela Coel, to secretly finish their father’s legendary unfinished series to capitalize on his market value. To ground the film in reality, screenwriter Ed Solomon consulted with art world figures like dealer George Barker and artists Jann Haworth and Derek Boshier, while production designer Antonia Lowe and painter Barnaby Gorton created the physical artworks seen on screen.

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museum exhibitions schedule Sep 1, 2025 visibility 14 link 8 artists, 1 gallery

amy sillman cameron martin sikkeman jenkins malloy dia bridgehampton 1234750430

Artist Cameron Martin discusses his new exhibition “Baseline” at Sikkema Malloy Jenkins in New York with fellow painter Amy Sillman. The conversation explores Martin’s shift from earlier landscape-derived graphic paintings to a more abstract approach involving “almost signs”—forms where signifier and signified don’t fully align. Martin describes his work as engaging with paradox and contradiction, using surrogates for gesture and juxtaposing elements that don’t quite fit together, which can produce a sense of humor or drollness.

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article news schedule Aug 3, 2025 visibility 15 link 5 artists, 2 galleries

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Tim Blum, founder of Blum Gallery, announced the closure of his gallery in early July, citing systemic problems and burnout. However, former employees and artists have since spoken out, claiming they were blindsided by the decision and criticizing the lack of notice, severance, and transparency. Some sources allege that poor business decisions, including a buyout of partner Jeff Poe and costly renovations in a shaky economy, contributed to the closure, while others dispute Blum's claims of strong sales at Art Basel. Separately, a bipartisan Senate bill seeks to extend a 2016 law aiding Holocaust victims in reclaiming Nazi-looted art, but major museums are pushing back, arguing the law unfairly hinders their ability to defend claims.

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person people schedule Jun 12, 2025 visibility 18 link 6 artists, 1 gallery

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Alexandra Metcalf, a rising artist based in Berlin, is gaining attention for her multidisciplinary work that blends Victorian and psychedelic aesthetics with the dark history of women's psychiatric facilities. Her upcoming Art Basel debut with London's Ginny on Frederick features an installation titled "Assembly," consisting of four reclaimed grandfather clocks transformed into psychologically charged dioramas, which has been nominated for the Baloise Art Prize 2025. Metcalf also recently opened a solo exhibition "Gaaaaaaasp" at The Perimeter in London, an immersive installation evoking a 1960s doctor's waiting room and surgical theater, further exploring themes of madness, gendered labor, and Freudian psychology.

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museum exhibitions schedule May 29, 2025 visibility 18 link 9 artists, 1 gallery

ben schonzeit imaginary friends louis k meisel 2633885

American artist Ben Schonzeit, a pioneer of Photorealism, presents his current solo exhibition "Ben Schonzeit: Imaginary Friends" at Louis K. Meisel Gallery in New York, on view through May 3, 2025. The show marks a significant evolution in his practice, bringing sculpture to the forefront alongside his paintings, and features imaginary characters that depart from his earlier still-life Photorealism. In an interview, Schonzeit discusses how his process has shifted from predetermined goals to intuitive exploration, influenced by New York City's street life and fashion.

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trending_up market schedule May 24, 2025 visibility 19 link 8 artists, 1 gallery

qatar lures art basel 2648893

MCH Group, parent company of Art Basel, announced a new Doha edition of the Swiss art fair, set to launch in February 2026. Art Basel Qatar will start with 50 galleries and expand to around 200, partnering with Qatar Sports Investments and QC+, a commercial arm of Qatar Museums. The fair aims to bolster markets across the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia.

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trending_up market schedule May 19, 2025 visibility 21 link 18 artists, 1 gallery

sothebys contemporary art auction report 2645705

Sotheby's held a three-part marathon of contemporary art auctions in New York on Thursday evening, totaling $186.1 million with fees across 68 lots. The evening included white-glove sales for the collections of legendary dealer Barbara Gladstone and veteran dealer Daniella Luxembourg, with the Gladstone offering exceeding its presale estimate. Top lots included Richard Prince's "Man Crazy Nurse" (2002–03), which sold for $3.96 million, and Lucio Fontana's "Concetto spaziale, La fine di Dio" (1963), which achieved $14.5 million. The main contemporary evening sale took in $127 million, while the overall result fell short of last May's equivalent sale of $234.6 million.

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article culture schedule May 15, 2026 visibility 8 link 3 artists, 1 gallery

Can Digital Art Ever Truly Replicate the Gallery Experience?

The article explores whether digital art platforms can replicate the experience of visiting a physical gallery. It acknowledges the impressive progress of virtual exhibitions—global accessibility, VR tours, AR overlays, and high-resolution zoom—and notes that 35% of UK adults digitally engaged with the arts in 2024/25, up from 27% in 2021/22. However, it argues that something essential is lost without physical presence: the tactile encounter with a painting's texture and scale, the serendipity of in-person discovery, and the spatial awe of standing before a Rothko in a white cube.

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museum exhibitions schedule May 4, 2026 visibility 36 link 42 artists, 2 galleries

In Venice For the Biennale? Don’t Miss These 15 Shows Around the City

The article is a guide to 15 art exhibitions taking place in Venice during the Biennale, curated by CULTURED magazine. It highlights shows such as "If All Time Is Eternally Present" at Palazzo Nervi-Scattolin, featuring film works by Tai Shani, Meriem Bennani & Orian Barki, and Kandis Williams; "Michael Armitage: The Promise of Change" at Palazzo Grassi; "Amoako Boafo: It doesn’t have to always make sense" at Palazzo Grimani; "Transforming Energy" by Marina Abramović at Gallerie dell’Accademia; and "Helter Skelter" by Arthur Jafa and Richard Prince at Fondazione Prada. Each entry includes location, dates, and curatorial context.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jan 28, 2026 visibility 20 link 11 artists, 3 galleries

Six London Art Exhibitions Opening In February 2026

Six major art exhibitions are opening in London public galleries in February 2026, running through at least May. Highlights include Lucian Freud: Drawing Into Painting at the National Portrait Gallery (12 Feb–4 May), Seurat and the Sea at The Courtauld Gallery (13 Feb–17 May), Chiharu Shiota: Threads of Life at the Hayward Gallery (17 Feb–3 May), Beatriz González at the Barbican Art Gallery (25 Feb–10 May), and Tracey Emin at Tate Modern (26 Feb–31 Aug). These shows span modern masters, contemporary installation, and international voices.

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article culture schedule Nov 3, 2025 visibility 21 link 15 artists, 6 galleries

Out of the wrapper and into the gallery: the art of chocolate

Artist Anya Gallaccio discusses her use of chocolate as an art material, tracing her first experiments in 1992 at Rodolphe Janssen gallery in Brussels, where she commissioned chocolate guns, and her 1994 solo show "Brown on White" at Galerie Krinzinger in Vienna, where she painted gallery walls with melted couverture chocolate. The work invited visceral audience reactions, including licking the walls, and engaged with themes of desire, decay, and the colonial and class histories of chocolate consumption.

newspaper The Art Newspaper open_in_new Read original

museum exhibitions schedule Sep 6, 2025 visibility 19 link 17 artists, 1 gallery

Adam Dressner’s Portraits Are for the People

Adam Dressner, a self-taught former corporate lawyer, opened his debut solo gallery exhibition "Hello Stranger 2" at 1969 Gallery in Tribeca. The show features large-scale oil paintings and a salon wall of 60 small acrylic portraits, many painted live in public spaces like Washington Square Park and Grand Central Terminal. Subjects range from celebrities like Joyce Carol Oates and Anna Delvey to everyday New Yorkers such as a neighborhood waiter and a 90-year-old park acquaintance. Dressner painted 18 works on-site in the days before the opening, continuing his practice of wheeling an "art cart" of supplies to make expressive plein-air portraits.

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museum exhibitions schedule Jul 18, 2025 visibility 15 link 13 artists, 1 gallery

Jenny Saville: The Anatomy of Painting

The National Portrait Gallery in London is hosting a major exhibition of Jenny Saville's work, titled "Jenny Saville: The Anatomy of Painting," running from 20 June to 7 September 2025. The show brings together some of Saville's most monumental paintings, including works like "Hyphen" (1999) and "Reverse" (2002-03), drawn from private collections and courtesy of Gagosian. The article traces Saville's career from her early days as a committed child artist, through her studies at Glasgow School of Art and the University of Cincinnati, to her breakthrough when collector Charles Saatchi purchased her entire degree show in 1992, enabling her to create large-scale works for a solo exhibition.

newspaper Studio International open_in_new Read original

trending_up market schedule Oct 7, 2025 source 2 sources visibility 25 link 15 artists, 1 gallery

The extraordinary boom in modern Indian art

Despite a general art market downturn, modern Indian art auctions have seen extraordinary demand. Over the past two weeks, sales at Christie’s in New York, Saffron Art in New Delhi, Pundole’s in Mumbai, and Sotheby’s in London all sold out. Sotheby’s London sale raised £19 million, more than five times its estimate, led by record-breaking works from Francis Newton Souza, including *Houses in Hampstead* (1962) sold for £5.6 million and *Emperor* (1957) sold for £5.2 million. The article traces Souza’s rebellious career, from his expulsion from school in Mumbai for pornographic graffiti, to his founding role in the Progressive Artists’ Group, his struggles in England and the US, and his eventual death in 2002 with little recognition.

newspaper The Telegraph open_in_new Read original

trending_up market schedule Oct 17, 2025 source 4 sources visibility 33 link 61 artists, 1 gallery

London 20th/21st Century Frieze Week sales achieve a running total of £141.8m / $189.7m / €162.75m

Christie’s 20th/21st Century: London Evening Sale during Frieze Week 2025 achieved £106.9 million, up 30% year-on-year, with a 90% sell-through rate by value. The top lot was Peter Doig’s *Ski Jacket* (1994), sold for £14.27 million after intense bidding, part of the Ole Faarup Collection, which raised £27.3 million total for the Ole Faarup Art Foundation. Other notable sales included works by Lucian Freud, Paula Rego, Gerhard Richter, Pablo Picasso, and Suzanne Valadon, with more than half of all lots selling above high estimate.

newspaper Christie’s Also: ARTnews open_in_new Read original

museum exhibitions schedule May 11, 2026 visibility 19 link 6 artists, 3 galleries

Exhibition | Paula Rego, 'Drawing from Life' at Galerie Lelong, 38 Avenue Matignon, Paris, France

Galerie Lelong in Paris is presenting 'Paula Rego, Drawing from Life,' an exhibition focused on the artist's intense three-year period from 2005 to 2007, during which she devoted herself almost exclusively to drawing and lithography in her London studio. The show features works inspired by literary sources such as 'Jane Eyre,' 'Peter Pan,' and the sixteenth-century tale 'The King of Pigs,' as well as her connection with playwright Martin McDonagh. Key pieces include 'Shakespeare’s Room,' 'Scarecrow,' and 'Turtle Hands.' The exhibition is made possible with the support of Nick Willing, the artist’s son, and Cristea Roberts Gallery in London.

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museum exhibitions schedule May 19, 2026 visibility 3 link 11 artists

Quando la mitica Peggy Guggenheim era una gallerista a Londra. Mostra da non perdere a Venezia

The article details the early career of Peggy Guggenheim before she established her famous Venetian museum, focusing on her London gallery Guggenheim Jeune (1938–1939). It describes how the gallery mounted pioneering exhibitions of avant-garde art, including the first UK solo show of Wassily Kandinsky, a group exhibition of contemporary sculpture featuring Jean Arp and Henry Moore, and shows of artists like Marie Vassilief and Gisèle Freund. The Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice now presents a retrospective of this formative period, titled "Peggy Guggenheim a Londra. Nascita di una collezionista."

newspaper Artribune open_in_new Read original